Catholic World News, One of the five Anglican bishops who plans to enter the Catholic Church has predicted that “thousands, not hundreds” of lay Anglicans will make the same move.

Anglican Bishop John Broadhurst said that many Anglicans are watching carefully as plans for an Anglican ordinariate within the Catholic Church take shape. Roughly 1,000 Anglican parishes in Great Britain have voted not to accept women as priests: an indication that a substantial fraction of Anglicans would be in sympathy with the “Anglo-Catholic” approach.

Bishop Broadhurst said, however, that questions about women priests and bishops are not the only factor in the decision to enter the Catholic Church. He said that the offer extended by Pope Benedict in Anglicanorum Coetibus will prove irresistible for many of the Anglican faithful.